Yes We Can

So when I first saw this speech and the hair on my arms did funny things (the relevant stuff starts 10.28 minutes into it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe751kMBwms

... I thought: He'll win. He's the first presidential candidate EVER to use the creed of Bob the Builder (Bygge-Bob in Danish, which is exactly what my son Viktor, three years of age, calls my friend and employee CarpenterTorben, by the way).

So he won. Of course.

Then I told Dan Morgan of PSOUG the story last Sunday. He went home and found out that the Obama campaign had used the Bob the Builder figure at a rally or two. It was no coincidence.

Which might explain why McCain invented a false plumber named Joe.

So last week in Seattle (at the SQL Server PASS conference) Anette stumbled on a shirt shop that had a T-shirt with a picture of Obama and the words 'Yes we can' on it.

We talked to the guy, told him the story, and then he promply went into some Adobe product on the laptop on his desk and replaced Obama with Bob the Builder carrying multiple tools, put Obama's campaign logo on his hardhat, and made his skin colour slightly brownished...

The result was perfect, and I think he is now displaying shirts with that motive in his window in a small mall in Seattle.

Viktor was overjoyed (size four years). Dan Morgan, too (3XL) - he might even wear it in Birmingham for the presentation he's doing for Jeremiah (who can't come) at the UKOUG conference next week.... I'll certainly bring mine (2XL).

And for those of you who don't know Bob the Builder: Whenever Bob and his friends (machines and a few humans alike) are going to do some heavy stuff together, like digging a hole in Mrs. Petersen's garden, Bob will ask them all:

"Can we do it?"

and they will answer with gusto, enthusiasm and unbound energy:

"Yes, we can!"

In Danish it's:

"Kan vi gøre det?"

and the answer is:

"Ja, dét kan vi!"

Just so you know.

My sincere thanks to Viktor and Bob the Builder for helping me re-learn a few fundamental things about human capacity, and the power of optimism.